Resident Evil: Duality
by Taimae
Summary: A ResiFanfic with a few of my own characters having to deal with some unfortunate events when they're sent to an isolated Australian community on a mission. It turns out to be a little bit more complicated than they thought. Rated M for Language.
1. Prologue

_Prologue: _

_July 1998,_

_In the small Midwestern town of Racoon City, a series of bizarre murder cases have been reported. There were rumours of people attacking and eating other people and weird creatures were spotted on the outskirts of the town. S.T.A.R.S Bravo team was sent out to investigate a train accident, only to wind up missing. Alpha team was the next to be sent in, finding out that Bravo was last seen at a large mansion in the Arkalay Mountains. However, the S.T.A.R.S team was in a situation was far worse than anything they could imagine… _

_Back in Racoon City, a small group known as NCC protested against a large pharmaceutical company known as Umbrella, accusing them of illegal biological testing. The group claimed that with Umbrella testing all these unknown weapons near their town could destroy their very way of life. They couldn't be closer to the truth. I always knew that Umbrella had been trouble, but I never thought they would go as far as doing what they had done. None of us did. Not us, not S.T.A.R.S, I don't even think Umbrella fully understood what they did. _

_Whatever happened to that train, and in that mansion, eventually made its way to the very heart of Racoon City; a viral outbreak that brought back the dead and gave them a hunger for human flesh. This virus was known as the T-Virus. It was the first out of many to infect and turn our town into some kind of scene from a horror movie. _

_Eventually, the U.S government issued an order to 'quarantine' the situation; nuking the grounds so that nothing could survive. Eventually, Umbrella's stocks crashed, leaving them bankrupt. The corporation was finished. There would never be another Racoon City incident again. _

_Or so we hoped. _

_Six years passed, and the President's daughter, Ashley Graham was kidnapped by a cult group known as the Los Illuminados. The government sent out agent Leon S. Kennedy, a former police officer from Racoon city, to go and find her. According to reports, he found more than just a crazy cult group. What he found was another Racoon City. The village that Mr. Kennedy had found Ms. Graham in was infected with a parasite; the Las Plagas. _

_The Los Plagas was a type of parasite that not only took over and controlled your nervous system, making it far worse that the T-virus. We had hoped that this would be an isolated incident, but we could not retrieve the sample in time. As for where it is, we no longer know. _

_So, where does this leave us all now? It leaves us with two decisions; some of us choose to ignore the problem, as for me…_

_I'm going to wipe it the hell out._


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Holas, Taemae here. Yeah, for anyone who may be reading this (which I'm sure isn't many), if you have any questions, ask away. I know that there are so many confusing things. Why? Because I never wrote the original thing that goes before this, though I've certainly wrote it all down in my brain.

I've been having a huge RE crave lately, and I figured that why not try to write a Fic about it? Be gentle... this is the first time I've ever put up any of my stories (maybe second, but it doesn't count if no one reads it). My lovely friend Dragon thought it would be nifty to post it on here, so I conquered my fears and decided to! I appreciate criticism, though be nice about it. You know, it doesn't help if you simply say 'zomg this sux'. Well, why does it? To generic (probably)? Confusing? Et cetera?

Enough of my babbling now, hope you enjoy the first chapter of RE: D. Mind you, the story is going to be a little slowly getting into the whole Zombie attacking point. Give it time though and toodles. And sorry for any bad grammar ahead of time.

**Chapter 1: The World Down Under  
**

August 10th, 2007, Melbourne Airport- 10:32 am

"This is why I hate plane rides, especially ones that last a fucking day. You're cramped, you're next to random strangers you don't like, and other bull-shit like that,"

"Karen, we were flying in business class. You were sitting next to me and Harvey. I don't know what the hell you're complaining about other than the crappy landing,"

"Well, Harvey is strange enough as is, and that landing was just… listen, I'm going to go and complain about this as soon I get back. Get that damn pilot fired,"

The brunette continued to mumble and grumble about the situation, whilst Cassandra just walked beside her, tuning in now and then when she felt like it. A smirk formed on the raven-head's face, when she did actually listen to her co-worker ramble on and on about how in just the airline was.

"Why don't you just admit that you have a fear of riding planes? Or anything that has you suspended in the air for that matter," she said trying to sound thoughtful, which was a surprise for the 'femme fatale' these days. For some reason though, the ride here cheered her up. Maybe it was because, even though she was going on some bogus mission, at least this time, she got to travel and was with a few people that she liked. Well… Karen anyway… maybe Harvey. Certainly not Daniel. As for Roy… well, that was just damned complicated right now.

"Fuck you, Cass. I don't have a fear of flying objects, alright? I just believe that every single time that I've been on an aircraft of some sort, it was shitty. This one, that time I went to California, escaping from Racoon City… all shit,"

Cassandra couldn't help but laugh. Karen really was a great person, but when she went on a tangent, she went on one for awhile. Whatever. Let Karen go on and complain, after all, she probably wouldn't have enough time for it once the mission started. The raven-head couldn't help but feel as though that their little trip to the outback wasn't going to go according to plan, despite what anyone said to console her. Anything that has to do with trying to prevent another outbreak of a virus can go okay… or horribly wrong, and Cassandra had a gut feeling that this just was going to be one of those 'horribly wrong' times.

Here was the idea and the plan; after the incident in the small Spanish town, the U.S government as well as REG thought that there may be more than just one crazy, parasitic cult out there that could prove harmful. The first to go are usually small communities. When someone comes in with a crazy, but convincing idea, people who are more sheltered tend to be much more susceptible to, well, converting to what they believe is the 'greater good'. Bullshit, if you asked Cassandra, but none the less, it happened quite often. Look at Jim Jones, and Moony. Either way, the plan was to take care of the situation before it expanded as well as check out a few places that may have had a bit of bizarre contact lately.

The REG agency has a fair number of people whom have had their fair share of Racoon City and Las Plagas, so the U.N thought it would be a nice idea to send a little party here and there around the world, building up 'awareness', like a police officer going from school to school to talk about drugs. Australia was one of their first on the list. As to why… maybe because everything else down there could kill you and if they were genetically altered… well, that would make things worse.

As Cassandra and Karen continued to walk down the large hallway with many other people, they heard quick footsteps catching up to them.

"Hey! Ladies… wait!" called a voice behind them. "Y'all are way to quick fer us! You started to head off before we even got our own luggage. Gosh darn, are y'all trying to abandon us fellers?"

'_Tried, but failed,'_ the raven-head thought and let out a long sigh. It's not that she didn't like Harvey, the red-neck redhead, she just really hated Daniel. If it was up to her, he would've already been shot under the assumption that he was infected by a parasite. She later found out that being an arrogant, aggressive, asshole just came naturally to him. She shouldn't be all that surprised. After all, he wasn't the first to be born that way and she wasn't exactly the nicest person herself.

"We figured we'd just catch up to see if our ride was here yet was all. We knew you'd catch up," Cassandra replied as they came to a halt waiting for all three men could catch up with them.

The buzz-cut redhead in the beige camo-clothes was Harvey McKenzie. As expected from his southern-drawl, well… he was from the south of the United States. To be more specific, he was from Texas. Harvey was a swell guy actually. As much as I would love to say he wouldn't hurt a fly… Harvey's actually their 'shooting from a concealed position that allows me ta not get hurt' guy. In short, he's a sniper; an amazing sniper at that. Now… why they'd need a sniper for a mission that is just supposed to involve just a group of them warning them about mad parasitic men, she didn't know. Cassandra had a feeling that REG was hiding something from them. Whatever it was, it more than certainly had something to do with fighting off something that was less than unpleasant.

To move onto man number two with the constant scowl, but handsome features and the jet-black hair was Daniel Lorenzo. Ah Daniel… what was there to say about him? Well… he's a damned arrogant son of a bitch that Cassandra still couldn't understand why was on this mission. He had no dealings with this kind of stuff, no matter how good he was at his job. At least Harvey and Karen have SEEN zombies. In fact, Cassandra hates him so much, that she wants to keep this paragraph about him short. Thus, it ends here for him.

The final man on the left was Roy Carver. Hoo boy… what to say about Roy? A member of the air force, there wasn't a machine he couldn't fly. Today, he was their wonderful helicopter pilot to fly them into the uncharted town. Apparently, their employers also thought it was more efficient to bring one of their own pilots instead of just having one of the Aussies fly them. That's America for you.

But why Roy? Sure, he a nice guy. Actually, he was very friendly and a sweetheart- in a somewhat perverted way sometimes. He was also handsome, with his brownish-red hair and striking green eyes, but… it was Roy. Right now… Cassandra just couldn't deal with him. It was like getting a spoon to defend a case for you at court. Sure, it was handy when needed, but it was a spoon. There's a time and place for it to be and right now, this spoon was going to tear off her game.

Damn spoon.

"Well, any signs of our lovely friends from down under?" Daniel asked, quirking an eyebrow at Cassandra. "Apparently, you idea wasn't very affective nor worthwhile,"

"Neither is your face, Daniel, but you never know until you actually try something, now do ya?" Cassandra replied bitterly as she looked around for any signs that could be their Aussie halves.

Sure enough, blue eyes spotted a sign held up by a tall, middle-aged, male brunet. He looked like a stereotypical Aussie from the outback with his Croc Hunter hat and the little bit of gruff on his face. His eyes screamed of experience and adventure. The sign in his head read 'Oi Yanks!'. Well, that was mildly entertaining. Cassandra couldn't help but smile a little bit. "Are you 'Golf' by chance?"

"Are we Golf, you ask? Well, little sheila, are you Alpha?" The Aussie asked, raising an eyebrow with a grin.

Cassandra nodded. "We are,"

"Then, we're Golf! Nice to meet ya, mates. Name's Bruce Fields. I'm head of this hear troupe of four. This buddy 'ere is Rio. The specky-eyed one there is Laurence, and the sheila 'ere is Zia,"

"Hi I'm-"

"My name is Daniel Lorenzo. I'm the leader of team Alpha. On behalf of the team and our agency, it's a pleasure to finally meet you all and actually work with you,"

Cassandra snorted in the behind him. Oh yeah, right. As if REG would appoint him the leader.

…

…

…

Those fucking bastards.

"Let me get this straight…" Karen replied, sitting on a bed, looking up at Cassandra, who was looking out from their hotel room window.

"You think that REG is out to get you?"

"Well, not exactly, but this whole mission is just crying out for something bad to happen. I understand why we're here, but if feels that the people that they've chosen to come out here is more for combating, not for little peace talks about how not to take candy like parasites from strangers,"

"It's a precaution, you know that. And since you have the best experience with this, what with Raccoon and Spain, they chose you. Daniel is a good speaker (sort of) Harvey is… well I don't know why he's here. Roy is a pro with helicopters, so that's why they have him with us,"

"Yeah, because I'm sure it's so difficult to find an Australian that can fly a chopper in his own home country. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that they're trying to get rid of us. Or testing us. Either way, they're keeping something from us… as usual," She really shouldn't have been all that surprised.

Cassandra did not have a good track record with REG after Racoon City. However, she didn't really have any other choice, but to work with them. She had a contract, and a duty to fulfill. If she were to find a way to leave just now, she knew she'd regret, so for now, she'd just have to put up with all of them.

"Well, I'm gonna be takin' a shower now, alright Cass?" Karen replied, grabbing a towel, and entering the bathroom. "You can use it after, alrights?"

Cassandra nodded as she flopped down onto one of the beds and exhaled. She still felt the jet lag, so she was actually wide awake. But she knew that she needed to sleep a bit. However, before she thought of doing that, she heard a knock on her door. Now, she wasn't expecting that at all. With a bit of a sigh, she stood up again and then approached the door, and unlocked it. Once she opened it, she was face to face with someone that she didn't really want to see right now.

"Hey, Cass," Roy said with a smile, raising a hand, giving a slight wave. Cassandra tried to avoid his gaze for a moment.

"Hey," she replied quietly. Great… she didn't need this right now. Corrupt agency, Daniel, possible zombies… and now Roy. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…

"Do you need something?"

"What? I can't come over to just talk?" Roy said, a hopeful smile still on his face. "I mean, you've been sort of avoiding me since I met you back home. I thought that now that we have the time, we can catch up and all,"

"Catch up with what?" Cassandra asked, flicking her dark hair back, and placing one hand on her hip. Yes… she was being a bitch about this, but she didn't really want this right now. Her brain couldn't handle it. Blue eyes tried to focus on something behind his head, but it eventually just trailed down around him and his handsome physique.

The brunet rubbed the back of his head and laughed. "Well, you know! I haven't seen ya since the resort and all. What have you been up to?"

"Work." Hmm… did he get a haircut?

"That's it?"

"Yep." And he shaved… he actually really looks good clean shaven.

"And… you've been… enjoying yourself? Have you been trying to take it easy at least?"

"Mm." His arms are as in shape as ever. And that probably wasn't the only thing either.

"You sure? You seem, umm…."

"I'm fine," She really should stop. She was teasing her self now. "Listen, is this all you came for? Just for some small chit-chat?"

"Well, I _was_ here to see what you were up to, and that maybe we could just hang out or something…"

"Is that all you were implying?"

"Come on Cass, don't be like that,"

"Don't be like what?"

"Well, a bitch I guess," he shrugged, being rather blunt. "I know you get a reputation at work for not being the nicest person, but I know you better than that, so don't think you can just go and pretend that we-"

"Roy, we're professionals at our jobs. Don't get me wrong, you're a nice guy and all, but I just want to get my mission done. That's it, that's all. After this, we'll both go to our respectable lives back, not to cross paths again. That's how I look at it,"

"Well… that's kinda boring, don'tcha think? You seem to get along with Karen fine. And Harvey says you even talk to him about normal things sometimes, so what's so wrong with just having a normal chat with me? Because we had a good time and then slept together? It's not a crime. Besides, I didn't see anything written about co-workers not being allowed-"

"Roy."

"Cass."

Cassandra took a deep breath and stared at the pilot straight in the eyes. "Listen, you can talk all you want, but there's nothing between us. So, why don't you just go back to you room, get over this, and pretend this didn't happen. It'll make things a whole lot easier on you. Alright? Goodnight," She shut the door and locked it again, leaving Roy by himself in the hallway. She back to the bed and flopped down. She just wanted to sleep right now.

Meanwhile, Roy was still in front of the door, a little confused. Well… that didn't go so well. He punched his left hand with his left, but smiled.

"She's just playing hard to get is all. I like a little competition anyway,"


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: What is Old, Now is New**

August 11th, 2007, Northern Grasslands

"Man, this totally rocks! I love this baby! From the rotor, to the torque, to the propellers and… and knobs! Hoo-baby," Roy was basically having an attack of delight on his system as he was piloting a brand new MD-Explorer. He was like a kid in a candy shop flying this helicopter. The MD-E was originally only available in Belgium, the U.K, and Mexico, but now, Australia has them. "If only the we'd get this thing… man…"

"Dang, Roy, you sure do like yer helicop-o-ters," Harvey replied, with a grin, peeking into the cockpit. "We almost there?"

"About fifteen minutes there, cowboy," replied Laurence, who was co-piloting the helicopter. He actually looked a bit of the odd-man out of all the males in the group. His hair was neatly brushed, he wasn't as rugged as the other man, and well, he was British. Still, he was a pleasant fellow. He was obviously here for his brains, and not his brawn.

"Can you wait that long?"

"Oh, I sure can, I jus dun know about our cowgirl here," Harvey was pointing to Karen, who didn't seem to be in the best of moods at the moment.

"I want off. Now. Thompson, you suck,"

"…What?"

"Don't take it personally, Roy. Karen just has a fear of flying," Cassandra replied, giving a small smile. She may not have been ignoring the fact they 'had' something, but perhaps it was a little harsh completely ignoring him.

"No I don't. Shut up, Cass,"

"Uh-huh… whatever," Now Cassandra was certain that Karen had an issue with flying. This was actually one of the smoothest rides she ever experienced before. No wonder REG hired him. He was amazing. She smiled to herself about the thought, but then it soon faded as she heard Daniel's voice.

"Okay, so this is what's going to happen. Once we get to Johnson Heights, Roy, Laurence, and Harvey, you're staying behind, just in case we have an emergency.

"Aww… so I don't get any sightseeing in?" Harvey said, disappointed.

"Don't worry there, mate. Alls you're missing is a few houses amongst some shrubs. Trust me, I should know," Rio replied, giving a little chuckle, patting the Texan on the back.

"Anyway, to continue onto things that matter…" Daniel rolled his eyes, annoyed that he was interrupted. "The rest of us will be going directly into the town. Once we get there, we'll talk to the mayor, to make sure everything is still good to go. Then we just head out, go to the next town and eventually, word will pass around,"

"So, who's giving the speech about these weird fellas anyway?" Bruce asked. "I mean, we know a bit about these parasites, but not enough to really to give a whole class about them,"

"I will be of course," The dark-haired man replied, with an arrogant smile on his face. Cassandra gave the captain a weird look. As if he actually had actual real knowledge about Las Plagas.

"_Excuse me?_" her eyes narrowed. "Since when?"

"Since REG told me back at headquarters. Oh, they didn't tell you? I'm sorry, Cass,"

"They seem to be very vague on a lot of things lately,"

"Like your probation?"

"EXCUSE ME?"

"Oh… they didn't tell you about that either?"

"Uh, Daniel? I dun think we were supposed to really tell her about this until after…" Harvey interrupted, trying to keep things from blowing out of proportion.

"No, no. Let the weasel talk, Harvey. It'll make it all the easier for me to kick his ass after,"

"Shouldn't we just focus on the mission…?" Roy's voice could be heard quietly in the front.

"Face it Warren, you fucked up. You don't actually think just because you dealt with a few bugs that this makes you some kind of pro? Anyone could make a dumb speech about a bunch of brainwashing cults. You're just here as some extra ammunition in case something goes wrong. You know, take a bullet for the team, if you have to. Not literally of course,"

"As if I'd take a bullet for you, you fucking meat shield,"

"Both of ya, shut up before I go and use you both as one," Bruce said firmly. He may have been friendly most of the time, but when the older man got annoyed, he made it quite clear that he would not put up with it. He didn't need a bunch of kindergarteners whining about every single thing.

"Are… we almost there?" Zia asked quietly. The poor translator was, unfortunately, a seat in between the two and they were giving threatening looks to each other.

"Actually, we are," Roy said. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as the chopper lowered down into a bare plain.

The town really was in the middle of nowhere. All there was were shrubs, a few trees and a lot of dirt. Not very comforting in the least, that was for certain.

"They say that in the bush, no one can hear ya scream!" Bruce joked. No one else really took notice to it, but Cassandra couldn't help but feel that he was right. How… convenient. Ugh… now she was really getting a bad feeling about this. It was like the last finger to slap you across the face.

"Okay, so we have everything set? Thompson, McKenzie, Smith, you report to Melbourne and say we reached our destination. The rest of you, follow Rio. This is his hometown, so he knows his way around," Bruce hopped off the helicopter as the propellers slowed down. He then turned around to face them all. "Oh, and before I forget…" he tossed them each a radio and a water bottle. "Just in case the worse should happen and we need to contact each other. I mean, it wouldn't be too dandy if something bad did happen here would it?"

The group nodded, but once more, didn't take much notice to it. After all, this was Australia. Violence here was fairly low, especially in the middle of nowhere.

"Take care folks. Ya'll bring me back something, nifty, alright?" Harvey waved to the six that headed off to the town. They all waved back, surprisingly enough.

"Dang… lucky them. They get to have all the fun while we just hang around in the middle of nowhere," Harvey let out a sigh as he took out some cards and dealt them out to the two other men. At least they had this to occupy them.

"Don't worry, about it Harv," Roy said, giving his friend a pat on the back. "Maybe something exciting will happen. Like we get to see a dingo or a kangaroo, or something,"

Now, Cassandra never came from a small town, but she did know well enough that even no-name place like this had at least a little bit of action going on. There was no-one… no one at all. This didn't seem right. She took a look at Rio, who was from Johnson Heights. He seemed just as confused as she was.

"Where… is everyone?" Karen asked quietly, her chocolate eyes shifting around. The town was almost like a set for a show. There was no-one around. It was… well… abandoned, or so they thought anyway.

"I don't get it…" Rio said, his voice hinting with worry. "This doesn't seem right,"

"I was hoping you were going to say that, just so that I didn't feel like the only one," Cassandra replied. At the same time, she instinctively placed her hand onto her handgun. She had a feeling she'd have to be using her Blacktail once more.

"Wait," Daniel said in a hushed voice. The group stopped dead in there tracks, as they heard something not too far off. It sounded… like… running. Sure enough, a small man appeared from off the corner. He seemed panicked... very panicked. She sobbed and stumbled, muttering something very quickly under his breath. Still, the group stayed silent, just watching. Rio was about to speak up, but Bruce hushed him. Suddenly, something zoomed past the man. It was curved object, that shown a bit as his swooped near the sun. Once the little man noticed it, he slipped back and tried to run back the other way that he came from. However, it didn't work, for the next second, there was a sharp object lodged into the neck of the victim.

Zia gasped and covered her mouth, whilst Cassandra and Rio brought out their handguns, ready to strike at anything that was going to pop out at them. Daniel shook his head. "Lower your weapons. We start shooting now, and something worse may happen. We need to be calm about this,"

"Calm. Right. There's a man with a boomerang lodged into the back of his neck," Rio whispered angrily. "What do you want us to do?"

"For once… I have to agree with Daniel," Cassandra replied, painfully. "We don't know what the situation is right now, we need to tread lightly. It's quiet, which makes me believe that there may not be to many other people here right now,"

"If they're not here, then… where are they?" Karen asked, suspiciously.

Bruce took out his radio and brought it near his mouth. He had a feeling he knew where they were. "This is Fields to Thompson; do you copy?"

"This is Thompson. I copy loud and clear," The brunet lazily threw down a card. Apparently, the card game was still going on, though now, Laurence had gotten bored of it, and decided that it would be more interesting looking at nothing through his binoculars.

"What can I do for you?"

"_Is there anything going over on your end there, mate? It's dead silent here. We've only seen one person, and right now… they've been neutralized by something… or someone,"_

"Huh? Really..?" Roy said, surprised. He looked over Laurence. "Hey, do you see anything though those things, buddy?"

"Not really… wait, yes," Laurence replied. "I do. There seems to be…. I think I seem some people in the distance,"

"Huh? Lemme me check it out," He took out his own pair and zoomed in. Laurence was right, there were people; several of them, actually.

"Locals come to greet us maybe?" Laurence said.

"I dunno… there's something off," Roy replied and looked over at Harvey. He was busy using his sniper rifle. "What do you see?"

"One of them is holding something big on his shoulder…" Harvey said, adjusting his lense. "It looks like… a…"

"A what?"

Harvey froze for a moment, as though he had seen a ghost. However, the next thing to happen was quite abrupt, killing the moment of suspense.

"SWEET MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS!"

It was a rocket launcher.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Woo, chapter 2 is now done. Sorta. Go me! I love Harvey in all his southerness. XD He's the awesome that way. So, as you can sorta guess, the story will be telling to parts (much like the first two games used to do), though they will eventually return to one again. When that will happen, I haven't decided, because here's the issue. Even if Roy and the guys wanted to go track Cass and the rest down… they have a horde of Ganados chasing them down. Not too fun. 


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: You Have Now Entered the World of Survival Horror**

Having a group of people in the far distance from your helicopter usually doesn't seem like a very threatening situation. After all, if they got hostile, you'd just fly away. It wasn't what you would call a big deal. However… when said group happens to have a rocket launcher with them… it tends to makes things a little bit more complicated. Actually, make that a lot more complicated, especially for Roy, Harvey, and Laurence. Things were not looking to well, as that missile soared through the sky, going straight for the helicopter. The three didn't take a second more to jump out of that aircraft as fast as possible and make there way to a safe place. Then again, everything was grasslands… where was a safe spot?

"Just… keep… running," Roy panted as they ran. He winced slightly as he heard the noise of something, well, exploding. He turned his head for the moment as he saw the MD-Explorer in flames. It looked as though it was melting, and crying. That poor chopper; it didn't stand a chance. There were still so many things that Roy wanted to test on that thing too! Now, he'd never get the chance.

"Oh this is just _great…_" he yelled aloud. "Can things possibly get any worse?"

Beep-beep-beep.

"_This is Lorenzo to Thompson, do you copy?"_

"This… is…. him… can I help you?"

"_We head an explosion coming from your location. What is going on?"_

"Oh… we just met the locals is all… they blew up our helicopter,"

"_Excuse me!?"_

"Y'all 'eard him. The helicopter is kaputz. Them there locals went and aimed one of them rocket launchers at it and blowed it up," Harvey added in on his radio.

"_And you didn't try to stop it?"_

Roy twitched for a moment before replying to that. "Daniel, it's a freakin' rocket launcher! How do you expect us to fight against something like that!?"

"_You should have found away before to prevent it from happening,"_

"Right… like I knew a bunch of guys from the middle of goddamn nowhere were going to pop up with a tool of death! Jesus!" Was the guy dense? Or just stupidly brave? Either way, if Daniel had been here, in charge of this, they'd all be dead by now.

"Perhaps, you could give us a little information as to what we should do now, since our ride is obviously not up and ready to go?" Laurence added in, trying to stop the pointless conversation. "Right now, we're just running…. because, well, they're still shooting at us… yelling not very nice things,"

"_Just keep running until you find a safe-spot. When you do, shoot their brains out,"_

Roy was a little startled to hear Cassandra's voice on the radio, but in a weird sort of way, it was comforting. "But, aren't these the locals? We can't just do that… can we?"

"_They're no longer who they were. Las Plagas have gotten to them already. We're too late,"_

"How can you be so sure?" Laurence asked, a little sceptical about the whole idea of there being a parasite so advanced as this one.

"_Well, it's either that, or they're absolutely pissed off for no apparent reason. Either way, we're no longer safe. The game's begun, and now there's no turning back,"_

Roy was silent for a moment. Cassandra, she seemed very different right now. This wasn't the original Cassandra he knew, nor was it the ignoring bitch that he was dealing with earlier. This… she sounded, professional and all knowing, but at the same time, scared.

Just what in the world was going on here?

"Listen up everyone, because I'm going to say this once," Cassandra was taking charge now. There were so many times where things had gone wrong because she As much as Daniel wanted to object to all of this, but even he knew that it was important at least to hear her out right now.

"These things aren't like anything you've faced before. They're not human, but they're not zombies either. They're… well a mix of both. They have the stamina and aggression of Umbrella's T-Virus, but they still function on an intelligent level. It's going to take more than just one bullet to take these bad boys down. Usually a blow to the head, or severing their spinal-cord should do the trick,"

"Wa-wait a second here!" Rio stepped in defensively. "Just what the hell do you think you're saying? These are people, Ms. Warren. Normal people! They're not soldiers of war, or anything…" The tanned young man tightened his hand into a fist. "They're people I know… family, friends… I can't just pretend they're nothing!"

Cassandra stayed silent for a moment, not quite sure what to say. Well, she had a few ideas, all that were very cold of her, but she didn't want to pass this off as a 'sunshine and pink pony' world either. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot, thinking. There had to be a better way to go around this. When she was in Racoon City, fighting against the T-virus, she too was faced with friends, family… neighbours… it was a hard decision, but eventually, she basically was nullified towards the end. Whether she knew the person or not,

"Rio… they are no longer the people you know. They are merely images of your family. Ghosts, really-"

"That's what you think-"

"It's what I know. Listen, I understand that this is hard, but right now, it's you, or them. Seeing that they're infested with parasites, I'm going to hope it's them,"

"The sheila's right, Rio," Bruce spoke up as he tipped up his outback hat. "I hate to say it, but something eerie is goin' on here. Now, I'm not saying shoot every single thing you say, but ya gotta keep your eyes and ears open, alrigh'?"

Rio gave his captain an angry look, but he knew that both he and Cassandra were right. It was just difficult for the young man to grasp. He couldn't understand how this all went wrong. "It just doesn't make sense… I mean, when I called them, everything seemed fine. They never spoke about anyone bizarre coming in,"

"It's probably because the person they met didn't look bizarre," Karen replied, crossing her arms. "They wanted to keep a low profile so that they wouldn't have us or anyone else on their tail,"

"Either way, we're sitting ducks if we just keep standing around here like this," Cassandra added, looking at everyone and bringing the radio up to her mouth again. "We'll leave it at this; if someone decides to try and attack you, it's more likely that they're infected. If that's the case, then we have no choice, but to neutralize them. Got that, Thompson? McKenzie?"

"_Alls we gotta do is hit them there critters in the head something. We gotcha missy,"_

"_We'll try to catch up to you guys when we have the chance, though I have an inkling that's gonna be awhile. If you guys find anything worthwhile, give us a call,"_

"Mm. You guys do the same," Cassandra replied. Before, putting down her radio, something suddenly hit her.

"… Roy?"

"_Yeah?"_

"… Be careful,"

"_Heh. Don't worry about me. You just do the same, okay? I want to have someone's ass to look at once we're out of here. No-no, no need for words- I know you're thinking the same thing and that's all that counts,"_

"… You sure do know how to make a miserable mission into an awkward moment, don't ya?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Yes… Roy just said that. Why? Because he can. Great guy, though… he's a guy. A guy in the military. Whaddya expect? If you were in the desert and you just had your one mean of transportation blown up and a bunch of angry folk were probably out to get your blood… you'd do the same, wouldn't you? I thought so. 


End file.
